Hailey, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hailey, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Hailey lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Hailey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hailey — the short answer
Hailey, Idaho: USDA zone 6a, about 153 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~153
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Hailey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hailey's 153-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hailey
Each reading below is measured for Hailey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHailey runs about 153 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHailey sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Hailey is in
Hailey sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Hailey's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Blaine County is mostly Idaho Batholith. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hailey
Every plant below cleared Hailey's own zone 6a and its 153-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hailey?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Hailey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hailey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WOOD RIVER BEVERAGE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BLAINE CO SCHOOL DIST #61Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 02N 18E 15BBB1Nitrate · 1600 ft
- U-SAVE AUTO RENTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SUN VALLEY STAGES-HaileyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- VALLEY CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- POWER ENGINEERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ROCKY MOUNTAIN HARDWARE HAILEYToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- SAWTOOTH AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- JIM WALKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 02N 18E 15BCB1Nitrate · 2300 ft
- SUN VALLEY AVIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hailey's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Hailey.
Total Sites
376
within ~10 miles of Hailey
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
16 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hailey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hailey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hailey, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hailey — Mining (223 sites) and Superfund (16 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Hailey
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hailey average
Your land is one point inside Hailey
Everything above resolves to Hailey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Hailey Average
Hailey Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hailey
- ●One soil character for all of Hailey
- ●Frost dates read at Hailey's scale: May 6 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hailey's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hailey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hailey, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hailey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hailey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hailey average
How we know this about Hailey
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Hailey’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Hailey
When does frost risk typically end in Hailey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hailey typically lands around May 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 27.
When is the first frost in Hailey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hailey typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 153 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hailey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hailey sees about 153 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 22, about 118 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hailey?
The federal record around Hailey runs heavier than most — 376 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (223), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hailey?
From about Sep 6 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hailey's scale — its 6a band and its 153-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hailey's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Hailey’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hailey's own scale — its own ~153-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,544 acres it covers and 376 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hailey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hailey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 6 and the ~153-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 376 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hailey, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hailey's boundary and the 2,544 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~153-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hailey sits in the Snake River Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hailey's 2,544 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blaine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blaine County
- The growing challenges every Idaho grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Idaho
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Blaine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hailey's 2,544 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hailey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,544 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Hailey-wide figureread your own land →
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